Alone Against the World
by Vii Zee
Summary: AU where Clone Club has taken the place of the Scoobies in the Buffyverse.


Sarah loved it, the thrill of the chase and the kill. She even loved the dust that sometimes got up her nose – the icky, evil, vampire dust. She loved it all.

And this was just a bonus. Because when civilians were involved she always got showered by all this glorification that just made her feel wanted for once-

Wait. Scratch that.

She furrowed her brow as she approached the civilian standing in the alley way with a vampire on her tail and stopped in her steps for half a second. This situation wasn't normal and she couldn't pinpoint why.

And when the woman turned around and drop kicked the vampire, she knew what it was.

Apart from the incredible likeness to herself (how the fuck did she look exactly like her?!), the woman was a slayer too.

Well, shit.

She ran forward, and she thought she heard the woman yell at her, something about keeping back, but instead she just brought out a stake and plunged it deep into the vampire's back, giving a satisfied smirk as it dissolved into dust.

"What-" the woman began, before she looked her dead on in the face. Sarah reached a hand out at her and smiled coyly, cocking her head to one side.

"Sarah, Vampire Slayer. You must be Beth."

-0-

They sat in a library (how the fuck did they get into a library at this time of night so easily?), her standing right next to Beth, who didn't look too happy about this situation. Surrounding her were more faces who looked…exactly like her. She smiled at them all, nodding at them collectively and crossing her arms.

"So you guys are what, triplets or something?"

Nobody laughed at her joke, they were all too busy looking her up and down, then looking at each other in half-worried, half-intrigued glances. Was she for real?

"Is nobody going to talk to me, really?"

"Sorry, we're just a little…well…confused," one of them – the one with dreadlocks – shrugged from her place at the table.

"Well, let's start with introductions. My name is Sarah, I'm from the UK, and I'm here because my Watcher's dead and they told me to find Beth."

"But, you're a Slayer too?"

"Yeah," she answered Beth, giving a shrug of her own (one shouldered, showing she didn't really care that much, a technique she had mastered over the years). "For about a year now. Why?"

"Beth, I told you this would happen!" one of them, a woman with a fringe, says, waving her arms about. "People are going to start looking for you if you don't keep a low profile!"

"Kinda hard to do that, isn't it, Alison? I mean, I'm the Slayer. Everything dark and icky knows about me!"

"Alison, chill. This isn't out of the ordinary," the one with dreadlocks speaks again, and she gets off the chair and walks up to the one named Alison. "I mean, ever since Katya died, we knew that another Slayer would pop up. It's the rules. Paul said so too."

Sarah raises her eyebrows, feeling a little uncomfortable out of the loop. "Paul?" Who was this Paul and why where there so many people who looked like her all of a sudden?

"Paul is-" Beth begins, before Alison almost-shouts a "None of your business!" at her, and Sarah's eyebrows raise further up her head (if that was even possible).

"Alright, then. Who are you guys?"

Alison frowns and crosses her arms, imitating her slightly.

This was all kinds of weird.

"I'm Alison Hendrix. I'm the other muscle of the group after Beth."

Sarah finds that hard to believe, but that's before her eyes rake up and down the woman's figure and see a knife neatly pocketed into a belt loop, and a gun-like bulge in her jacket. Well, then…

"I'm Cosima," the one in dreadlocks states. "I'm, sort of a witch, I guess."

"Sort of?"

"I dabble," she says, winking slightly, flicking her wrist in an odd manner. Sarah smiles at her. She likes her, she seems…a lot like her.

Well, looks aside of course.

She's about to answer her, say something like 'cool' or something equally as nonchalant, when the door swings open and a woman strides in, followed closely by a younger, blonde woman, who's twisting her hands around nervously.

"You said it would work," the older one is babbling, and the blonde shrugs before catching site of Sarah. She stops dead in her tracks, inclining her head, and gave the creepiest, sweetest smile Sarah had ever seen.

She knew she visibly recoiled, because she bumped slightly into Beth when she stepped back, even though she didn't know she had done it. Beth shuffled away from her, giving a small snort of disgust, and the blonde moved forward, a large smile still plastered on her face.

"Hallo," she said, reaching her hand out. Close up, despite the blonde curly hair, Sarah could clearly see the resemblance she had to her. (It was creepy enough that she was in a room filled with people who looked exactly like her, but now one of them appeared to be a bit crazy, and this was getting a little bit more than she had bargained for…)

"My name is Helena."

"Uh…" she hesitated revealing her own name, looking at the older woman instead, who had stopped next to her, inspecting her curiously. She decided to tell her her name

"Sarah. Sarah Manning. I'm a Slayer too, my Watcher died and I was told to look for Beth. You must be Mrs S."

"Yes, Siobhan," the woman nodded. Yup, heavy British accent; definitely Beth's Watcher.

"You are a Slayer?" the one named Helena asked, and Sarah jumped a little at how close the voice is to her ear. She turned to her, her eyes narrowing and her jaw tightening.

"Yeah."

"Interesting," Helena mutters to herself before walking away to the table where Cosima sits. Sarah looks at her, waiting for her to say more, maybe reveal her connection to the group. So far she had one mortal, one Wicca, a Watcher and a Slayer. What was she?

"And you are?" she prompts after the silence gets to her a little bit, and Cosima looks up from the table to answer herself.

"Helena is our resident Vengeance Demon. You know, make a wish and it'll come true. She's mortal now, some sort of punishment for doing something stupid-"

"I was tricked by a Prince of another Realm," Helena interrupted, and Sarah winced slightly at another heavy accent. Russian? Definitely Northern Europe though.

"Point is, she's here now. She's with us," Beth says, and Sarah turns her attention to her. All this head-turning was making her dizzy. And confused.

"Alright, anybody else I should know about? Preferably someone that looks like me?"

"Oh, you noticed that too, huh?" Alison remarked, twisting at a pendant tied around her neck, smirking at her a little bit cruelly. She didn't trust her, Sarah could tell. And she didn't trust her either. "We don't know why that is-"

"We have a few theories!" Cosima and Siobhan both countered, and Alison waved them off.

"Whatever, but nothing concrete. The Master probably has something to do with it, anyways, none of that mystical crap you were spouting before."

"It is not crap!" Cosima yelled, silencing Alison and forcing the attention on herself. "It makes sense! And of course it would be mystical, we can't explain everything away with science anymore, it's not enough. Magic is key, and so is science. We need both."

"Whatever," Alison mutters. Cosima is about to answer back, getting just a little bit angrier, when the door swings open again. Sarah rolled her eyes (yay! More people…) and turned around, watching in stagnant relief as another blonde woman walked through the doors, one who looks nothing like her at all. She made a beeline straight for Cosima, sitting beside her and giving her a quick peck on the forehead. For a moment, Cosima was lost looking at this new face, all the anger at Alison gone from her features, and then she turned to Sarah abruptly, shaking her head slightly.

"Oh uh, Delphine, we have someone new…"

Delphine – that was her name? – looked at Sarah and smiled. "Hi," she said shortly, and Sarah nodded back.

"A'right?"

"Sarah's the new Slayer," Cosima explained to Delphine, and Delphine narrowed her eyes slightly.

Did Sarah just see a hint of…yellow in them?

"You have nothing against werewolves, I suppose?"

"Uh, no. As long as you don't bite me," Sarah answered, smiling back in reassurance. So that's what it was. Delphine smiled back, and something in the room clicked as light filtered in from the windows above, the room suddenly bathed in sunlight.

"Well, mornin'. Sarah, where are you staying? You can stay with Beth if you need a place."

"That, would be nice," she nodded at Mrs S, and Beth smiled at her – a stringy, thight, unwelcoming smile – and led her out the doors, the others following in their own pace behind them.

-0-

"I know it's a lot to take in," Beth was saying as they walked to her home, "with all these new people and shit. But you'll get used to it. We need all the help we can get here anyways."

"Why are there so many vampires here?"

"Hellmouth. It's unsealable. Or at least, we haven't found a way to seal it yet."

"Is that Mrs S's job?"

"Pretty much. Cosima likes to help too. She loves books and science and all that stuff. She's like our little computer nerd. Every group needs one."

"And her and Delphine?"

"Getting it on, like, every night."

"Alright then. What about Alison?"

"She's just a mortal who got too involved. We keep her around coz she's handy with a weapon."

"And Helena?"

"She means no harm. And if she does, Mrs S knows how to get her out of commission again. We're safe."

Sarah nodded as all her questions where answered, though she still felt as if something wasn't being addressed. She shook the feeling away when they reached Beth's front door, and she pointed at the couch.

"We'll explain to my mum in the morning."

"She knows?"

"Found out."

"Ah. Sorry."

"Nah, she's cool." Beth paused as she made to go up the stairs, and turned her head towards Sarah, giving her a small quirk at the corner of her mouth (a smile?).

"Goodnight."

"'Night."

-0-

For a few days it was nice to have people along on a hunt. Beth was skilled, and fast. The others at least knew how to use a stake, but sometimes they dragged everyone down a little bit. But it was fine, they made a relatively good team.

They called themselves Scoobies. Which was cute.

Sarah hadn't had friends in a really long time.

It was about a week after she arrived in town that shit got a little bit complicated.

They were out on patrol together again, kicking aimlessly at headstones. They were bored, vampires were taking a break or something. And when that happened that always meant something big was coming up soon and that they were saving their energy. It was a normal patrol.

Until she _felt_ him there.

She turned around, whipping her stake out and squinting into the dark. Beth stopped in her tracks, slightly confused, almost a little scared.

"What is it?"

"I felt one. Here."

"Sarah…"

"No, I know I did. He's here."

"Sarah, wait."

"Why? Do you want to die?"

"Sarah!"

She turned to look at Beth, who had one arm outstretched, the other _not_ on a stake in preparation for attack.

"He's a good guy. He's got a soul."

"I don't believe it."

"Sarah…" Beth tried to continue, but then the vamp emerged from the shadows, walking up to Beth and putting an arm on her shoulder. "Sarah, this is Paul."

-0-

"I can't believe it."

"Yeah, we don't really like it either. We don't trust him," Cosima answers her. They're sitting in the library, the sun filtering in slowly, Sarah's head resting against a shelf and Cosima a few centimeters to her right, hugging her knees to her.

"He's…" She can't find the word for it.

"Broody? Mysterious? Dark? All of the above?"

"Yeah."

"Don't worry, we're all…prepared for him to make one wrong move. And when he does he's gone, we've already decided."

"How long has this been going on?"

" A while, like a year now, maybe."

"Holy shite."

Cosima laughs, a small little thing that makes Sarah look at her and smile. Yeah, she likes this one. She's not like the others, all high-strung.

"So, what's your theory?"

Cosima turns to look at her, brightening up visibly, grinning at her before turning to face her fully, crossing her legs and waving her arms about as she speaks.

"I think that we were some sort of being, like something we haven't met yet, you know? Something non-ethereal. And maybe we became corporeal, but all our personalities got separated into all these different entities, and three of them just happened to end up in mystical beings – a vengeance demon, and two Chosen Ones…"

Sarah found herself thinking that maybe being alone was overrated. She liked this idea, that maybe she had these sister-like figures. She'd never had a family of her own…

She was tired of being alone against the world anyways.


End file.
